The 22d of March was designated as the day on which all the English settlements were to be attacked. The better to disguise their intentions, and to ensure success, they brought, in the preceding evening, deer, turkies, and fish, as presents; and, even on the morning of the massacre, came freely among the whites, behaving in their usual friendly manner, until the very instant which had been appointed for the commencement of the scene of carnage. The fatal hour being arrived, they fell at once on every settlement, and murdered without distinction of age or sex. So sudden was the execution of their plan, that few perceived the weapons, or the approach of the blow, which terminated their existence. Thus, in one hour, and almost in the same instant, fell three hundred and forty-seven men, women and children; most of them by their own plantation tools.
The massacre would have been still more complete, had not information been given, the preceding night, to a Mr. Pace, by an Indian domesticated in his house, and treated as a son, who, being pressed to murder his benefactor, disclosed the plot to him. He immediately carried the intelligence to Jamestown, and the alarm was given to some of the nearest settlements, which were thereby saved. At some other places, too, where the circumstances of the attack enabled the English to seize their arms, the assailants were repulsed.
This horrible massacre was succeeded by a vindictive and exterminating war, in which the wiles of the Indians were successfully retaliated on themselves. During this disastrous period, many public works were abandoned; the college institution was deserted; the settlements were reduced from eighty to eight; and famine superadded its afflicting scourge to the accumulated distresses of the colony.[36]
[Footnote 36: Robertson. Chalmer. Stith.]
As soon as intelligence of these calamitous events reached England, a contribution was made by the adventurers for the relief of the sufferers; arms from the tower were delivered to the treasurer and company; and several vessels were dispatched with those articles which might best alleviate such complicated distress.
[Sidenote: Dissension and dissolution of the company.]